Week 6 Social Distancing

Wow, time is quickly marching on. Week 6 brought more sunshine, some social distancing with friends (it does a load of good to see other people, even if from a distance), nature and our first camp out in our tent! 

Day to day, we are having fun and are growing into acceptance of this reality. Without the stress of a job while parenting, I am enjoying the playing, baking, crafting, learning (albeit with a good dose of me time built in). And having every night free is such a change that I am finally catching up on lots of TV shows with Pete. 

Gathering with friends to send off Yoko and family. It was really hard not being able to give her a hug. 

Pete's coworker lives on de Poel and has an inflatable kayak that she let us borrow. It was a squeeze and the kids were not loving it, but any change of scenery is great, no matter the whining! 

These two just passed an entire chorizo sausage back and forth to each other the whole time. Its a miracle it didn't fall in ! 

Over the break, I printed out schedule cards courtesy of Simone, hoping they would help motivate our morning routine. I had also been following a fellow expat mom here in Amsterdam in awe as she posted her daily schedule with the kids. I listened to a great Goop podcast over the break about reducing anxiety in children during this time, and they spoke about the importance of schedules, so I thought we'd give it a try. I made post it notes for all of the activities that Jude is assigned (math, reading, writing, unit of inquiry, specialities) and then made a bunch with other at-home and neighborhood activities. The kids are meant to choose what they'd like to do and when they'd like to do it to give them ownership of their schedule. I do think it helped in those first few days back from break, but we haven't been regularly doing this, ever since we woke up and the kids had added two more important things to the schedule (candy and butt poop)!

Some scenes of distance learning this week. I am getting screen fatigue big time, especially with Maeve. It is just not an ideal way for her to learn/play. 

Highlight of her school week was the "Not-A-Box" story and playing in her own. 

Eggcelent Earth Week activity

On Monday evening after the kids were asleep, I fought the temptation to plop down on the sofa and took a walk in the neighborhood instead, listening to Peter's side of the story on my bacholer podcast. 

I guess the sheep shearer is not available during quarantine either! 

Tuesday, we counted down the hours until 7pm when the Prime Minister gave a press conference about which social distancing measures would be lifted. Big on the agenda was the reopening of schools. After receiving the translations, we learned that Dutch primary schools and day cares will be opening part time and full time, respectively on May 11. How, in practice, this will work out, was left up to each individual school. As ISA is private, it is not governed by the Dutch laws so they are not obligated to open. I went from a high of seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, to a low the next day when I realized that school for our kids might remained closed. All week, we awaited word from the school as to their plan. Finally, on Friday we received an email, but it simply asked for us to reply to a survey "yes" or "no" if we would send our kids back. A similar survey was sent to teachers and now they are figuring out if the numbers line up and how it could be implemented. I am still holding onto hope (while also fighting the internal anxiety of not knowing if this is the best decision- of course no one knows, which is the problem). 

We had a lot of fun later in the week to take our mind off the news/anxiety. In an effort to do something, anything different from the monotony of the first 5 weeks, we set up our tent in the garden as an extra play space. Of course, then Jude really wanted to sleep in it. Despite the forecast of a low of 45 degrees at night, I gave in and spent the night shivering with the kids (Pete is on duty next time). They did great, though and I'm relieved our first "camping" experience is under our belts. 

Thursday was a gorgeous day, high of 73 and we spent the afternoon at Katwijk with a friend and her kids, celebrating Pete's seniors finishing their year. We could pretend we were back in Spain and not in the middle of a pandemic. It was really good for the soul. 

Tulips still in bloom along the drive home.

Another warm day Friday called for a trip to the ice cream shop with daddy. 

One late afternoon, I took the kids out to the playground, Jude on bike and Maeve walking. We had to go to 3 playgrounds until we had one to ourselves. We were in a part of our neighborhood where we don't spend that much time. Heading home, we crossed over the canal and Jude took off on his bike with me yelling after him the directions home. By the time I got home with Maeve, shocker, Jude was not there. I don't tend to worry here about anyone doing harm to the kids, but I do worry about all of the open water. I headed back to the canal and there, biking back over the bridge was Jude, in tears over being lost. A very valuable lesson learned and thankfully no harm was done!